Copley Library Annual Report 2015-2016

Library Open Education Resources Initiative This year, Copley Library launched its pilot Open Education Resources (OER) Initiative. OER are educational materials that are freely available and openly licensed in order to promote use, reuse, and adaptation to a variety of pedagogical contexts. The goal of this initiative is to lower traditional textbook costs for students while helping faculty take advantage of the diverse open resources available. In the program’s pilot year, the library o ff ered $1,000 stipends to four faculty members interested in implementing OER in their courses. Librarians worked with participating faculty to locate high-quality, low cost material. Participants saved more than 120 students over $12,000 in textbook fees. Feedback was collected from stipend recipients and will be closely evaluated by librarians. In addition to the stipend program, Copley provided opportunities to the university community to learn about OER. For example, during the 2016 Digital Initiatives Symposium, Nicole Allen, the Director of Open Education for SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), presented a workshop on OER. Librarians also created a subject guide which o ff ers resources and tips for using OER in the classroom. The library is looking forward to growing the Copley Library OER Initiative, o ff ering more cost-savings programs to faculty and students.

A NNUAL R EPORT 2015-16 | 6

C OPLEY L IBRARY | University of San Diego

Back to table of contents ›